Sweet Alchemy from Play'n GO: Slot Review - just add sugar!

Sweets or candies are a popular theme explored by countless software developers as they invite you to satisfy your sweet tooth all the while trying to land a nice cash payout. This latest release from acclaimed software studio Play’n GO is another one to add to the genre as it focuses on a charming alchemist who is making all kinds of sweets and candies to set you off a nice sugar rush! Let’s join the alchemist as she creates an assortment of colourful sweets and magical elixirs and see if she will bestow upon us a fortune full of sugary goodness!

Sweet Alchemy is played on a 5x5 grid and comes with features such as Cascading Wins, 3 Wild Symbols, a Sugar Rush Meter, and a Pick-Me bonus game.

Special Features

The first feature to highlight is that this game does not feature a traditional payline structure, instead it is played on a 5x5 grid where wins are formed by landing clusters of 4 or more symbols. Each time you form a win on the grid, the winning symbols will disappear and new symbols will fall in from the top, offering the potential to land even more wins.

As you play the game, you will notice a small meter to the right of the reels, this is called the Sugar Rush Meter. Every time you land a winning combination on the grid, you will fill up the meter. The more symbols you land then the quicker the meter fills up. For example, 13 winning symbols will fill the meter up halfway whereas 38 symbols will fill it up completely.

Sweet Alchemy features 3 Wild symbols and these symbols come into play when you fill a certain portion of the Sugar Rush Meter. When the meter is a quarter full, 2 regular Wild symbols are added to the reels. When the meter is half-full then 2 Striped Wilds are added to the grid. These Wilds act as normal Wilds but also remove all symbols from the row or column they land in. When the meter is three-quarters full then 2 Dotted Wilds are added to the reels and these symbols function as normal Wilds but also remove all instances of a randomly chosen symbol.

To trigger the Mix The Elixir Free Round bonus feature, you need to completely fill up the Sugar Rush Meter. Once activated, the grid will expand to a 9x9 grid and after each spin, one of the following 3 candy spells is awarded:

Mixed Candy: symbols are shuffled to help form winning combos

Sweet Surprise: 7 to 12 Wild symbols are added to the grid

Sugar Bombs: 7 to 15 regular symbols are removed to allow for new symbols to be added

Every 3 additional winning symbols add another Candy Spell to the Free Round. It is possible to get up to a maximum of 7. Candy Spells. As you play the Mix The Elixir Free Round, you also have to collect a specific number of 2 different symbols in order to gain access to the 3 levels of this bonus feature. When you have gathered enough symbols (16 low-value and 6 high-value symbols) then you will trigger the Elixir of Power Bonus level. In this feature, you need to pick from chocolate tiles until you match 3 magical elixirs to reveal a multiplier prize. The multiplier increases in value as you level up. For example, make it to Level 3 and the multiplier becomes a fantastic 10X your total win!

Every time you complete the Elixir of Power bonus feature, you will progress one position on the map. The map contains a trail of scattered Treasure Chests and the value in a chest is worth a wonderful 15% of the base game winnings. These winnings are calculated from the time since the previous chest was opened. The level and value of the Treasure Chest can be viewed on the bottom left-hand side of the grid.

Theme and Graphics

The graphics are bright and colourful with a slightly cartoonish look. It is quite similar in style to the popular Candy Crush game to be fair. This slot takes place on a magical purple cloud with the alchemist standing right beside the reels with her colourful cauldron at the ready. Symbols are wonderfully designed and consist of a range of mouth-watering sweet candy that look good enough to eat! The animations are superb as symbols pop like balloons when part of a winning combination and I really liked how the grid expands to a huge 9x9 grid when you trigger the Mix The Elixir Free Round bonus feature.

The music is melodic and light-hearted. It fits in really well with the candy theme of the game.

Our Verdict on Sweet Alchemy

Play’N GO created this highly entertaining slot and if you are a sweet lover then this game should be right up your alley! There is an awful lot going on in this action-packed game but thankfully there is an excellent intro video that explains the ins and outs of the game perfectly when you load it up for the first time. I was able to trigger the various bonus features quite often while playing and it’s just fantastic that you can win up to 3,000X your initial wager when you get a 10X multiplier in the Elixir of Power bonus game. I found this slot to be highly volatile so be warned that you will need a considerable bankroll and have to endure a few dry spins before you land a big win in this sugar-coated game! For slots with a similar candy theme, check out Candy Dreams and Sweet King.